Kaipad Rice Farming in North Kerala-An Indigenous Saline Resistant Organic Farming System
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Indian Journal of Traditional Knowledge Vol. 11(1), January 2012, pp 185-189 Kaipad rice farming in North Kerala-An indigenous saline resistant organic farming system KT Chandramohanan & KV Mohanan* Genetics & Plant Breeding Division Department of Botany, University of Calicut, Kerala- 673635, India E-mail: [email protected] Received 09.05.11; revised 16.06.11 Rice, the most important cereal and staple carbohydrate source of Asia is cultivated in diverse ecological conditions and many such agro-ecosystems are fragile and critically endangered. Some such systems are very special in terms of their ecological singularity and subsistence value and their conservation would invariably add to availability of food and protection of genetic diversity. The present study is an investigation in to a very unique rice farming system in Kerala state of India in which rice is cultivated in the first crop season in saline wetlands that are subjected to regular tidal action, taking advantage of the heavy South west monsoon which results in flushing out the salt content from the farmland. In Central Kerala the system is known as pokkali and in North Kerala as kaipad. Kaipad system of rice farming has been studied presently, based on specialities of the area, soil and water conditions and the varieties used. The study showed that soil salinity of the area in summer varied from 10.9 mmhos/cm to 19.9 mmhos/cm and water salinity in summer varied from 35.9 mmhos/cm to 49.9 mmhos/cm and in the month of July in the middle of the South west monsoon it varied from 1.6 mmhos/cm to 4.7 mmhos/cm. Soil pH during April ranged from 4.9 to 6.6. Water pH ranged between 6.71 and 7.45 in April and in July it ranged from 6.15 to 6.71. Availability of NPK in the soil ranged as follows in April: N: 1.12% to 2.0%; P: 7.2 kg/ha to 34.2 kg/ha; K: 480 kg/ha. The major rice varieties cultivated in the area are the native cultivars Kuthiru, Orkazhama, Kuttusan, Orthadiyan and Chovverian among which Kuthiru is the most popular and the best performing. Keywords: Kaipad, Traditional and released saline tolerant rice cultivars IPC Int.Cl.8: A01G 16/00, H01L 35/00, H01L 37/00, A23L 3/00, A23L 4/00, A47G Rice is one of the major cereals of the world and is requirement. The deficit in rice production is the staple food of the people of Asia. India stands first increasing year after year due to reduction in rice area in rice area (44. 6 million hectares) and second in arising out of large scale conversion of paddy lands production which almost tripled from 30.4 million for raising other crops or for residential purposes2. It tones in 1966 to a record production of 93. 3 million is estimated that half of the world’s farms have been tones in 2001-02. Though there was steady increase in damaged by salt. About one billion hectares of production of rice in India, reverse was the trend in the world’s land are affected by salt and 60% of it the state of Kerala. Since mid seventies, area under is cultivated. This is not a static situation and paddy cultivation is declining at the rate of 4.3% per approximately 1.5 million hectares of irrigated land annum in the state1. The net area of rice, the single are salinized each year3. most food crop of the state has been reported as 2.25 To address these problems, the ability of crops to lakh hectares in 2004 which is a meagre 5.8 % of the tolerate such conditions has become a key research total geographic area, 10 % of the net area sown and issue in the world. At this context, salinity tolerant 2 16 % of the area under food crops . The prosperity of genetic resources and varieties of rice can play a the people of Kerala and in turn the economy of the major role to attain the goal of food security. Further, state largely depends on the performance of rice. some degree of cultivar tolerance for salinity stress Kerala is a deficient state in rice production. While available with certain traditional land races, not the estimated requirement of rice for the state is 30 exploited so far has great relevance in crop lakh tonnes/yr, it produces only one third of its improvement. A complex and ecologically responsive ——————— rice-fish farming system has evolved in the coastal *Corresponding author wetland regions of India over centuries. No accurate 186 INDIAN J TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE, VOL 11, NO 1, JANUARY 2012 estimate of the area under this cultivation exists. also is subjected to tidal action and hence the soil is According to one estimate4, it is about 0.7 million saline and out skirted by mangrove plants which hectares. Rice culture in these lands takes place either provide a special habitat for rice cultivation. under deep water or floating conditions. The rice The study area is located at Ezhome region of varieties cultivated are traditional types with an Ezhome village panchayat and Keezhara region of average yield of about 1.5 to 2 tonnes per hectare4. An Kannapuram village panchayat of Kannur district of important characteristic of this farming system is that Kerala. Fifty farming units in the Ezhome and to facilitate the cultivation of rice during the wet Keezhara regions, each with an area of about 0.1 ha to season of the year, the land has to be dewatered for 0.3 ha were used for the study (Table 1). The units sowing and subsequently protected from saline water were frequently visited and the observations recorded intrusion to ensure crop growth; rest of the year it and analysed in the first cropping season of 2009-10. remains under fresh or saline water depending on the Details of the commonly used cultivars and varieties ecological setting. For the organisation of this were collected and the frequency of their cultivation farming, different types of water control, both for the observed. Water and soil samples were collected from cultivation of rice and for the culture of fish are 10 representative units during April and July and required. There exist variations in these farming analysed for parameters like pH, salinity, Nitrogen systems across regions depending on the ecological, content in terms of organic C and available P and K technological, institutional, and organisational content. The farming units were observed from land arrangements and systems of exploitation of the preparation to harvest and observations were made on wetland resources base4. Forty years ago, about the agronomic characters of the crop cultivars used 2500 ha of kaipad rice fields existed in Kannur based on systematic sampling selecting 30 plants per district of Kerala, but now it has been restricted to farming unit. about 600 ha. Most of the kaipad fields either lie Results and discussion barren or produce low yields. At present, traditional Kaipad wetland ecosystems consist of marshes, cultivars namely Kuthiru, Orkayama, Mundon, swamps, ponds and paddy fields. These swampy and Kandorkutty, Orpandy, Odiyan and Orissa tolerant water logged areas experience flood during monsoon to low and medium salinity are cultivated in various 3 and salinity during summer owing to their proximity kaipad fields of Kerala . to estuaries. Tidal currents enter the fields during high The present effort is significant since in recent tide and flow out during low tide. Saline water from decades, the wetlands under rice-fish farming have the sea enters the estuaries during summer when the been facing severe threats due to a variety of factors flow is low and it spreads in the low lying kaipad including shift from the ecologically fragile rice-fish wetlands and this water keeps the area moist even in farming to the semi-intensive fish farming. The study summer months. Kaipad farms are made by making has been carried out at a time when the world fritters bunds around the wetlands and these are protected by time and money on researching new varieties of the mangrove plants growing along their outer paddy that are flood and saline tolerant while the boundaries. The kaipad system of agricultural practice indigenous varieties adaptive to organic farming in is traditionally empowered with local knowledge and coastal Northern Kerala that thrive on salinity and it is interwoven with traditional lifestyle. water are finding survival a tough proposition. Kaipad system of rice farming in the Ezhome and Keezhara The farming system Agricultural operations are started with the drying regions of Kannur district of Kerala state of India has of the low lying kaipad fields in the month of April. been studied presently, based on agro-ecology, farming practices and the varieties used. Table 1—The rice cultivars used and the frequency of their cultivation by the farmers Materials and methods Cultivar Number of farming units Percentage Hydromorphic saline soils are common in Kerala out of the 50 units visited and are found near the coastal tracts of the state in the 1.Kuthiru 28 56 districts of Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Thrissur and 2.Orkazhama 10 20 Kannur. The network of backwaters and estuaries 3.Kuttusan 10 20 4.Chovverian 1 2 serve as inlets for tidal waters to flow inland in to 5.Orthadian 1 2 5 these areas causing salinity . The area of present study Total 50 100 CHANDRAMOHANAN & MOHANAN: KAIPAD RICE FARMING IN NORTH KERALA 187 The tidal flows are controlled by constructing bunds sluices are kept open to allow tidal water and prawns with about 2-3 m breadth and 2.5-3 m height at the and fish to enter the farm.